softwareengineering

Read the Fucking Manual<br><br><a href="https://blainsmith.com/articles/read-the-fucking-manual/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="blainsmith.com/articles/read-the-fucking-manual/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">blainsmith.com/articles/read-t</span><span class="invisible">he-fucking-manual/</span></a><br><br><a href="/tags/rtfm/" rel="tag">#RTFM</a> <a href="/tags/engineering/" rel="tag">#Engineering</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#SoftwareEngineering</a> <a href="/tags/hardwareengineering/" rel="tag">#HardwareEngineering</a> <a href="/tags/research/" rel="tag">#Research</a> <a href="/tags/selfsufficient/" rel="tag">#SelfSufficient</a><br>

<p>What I’ve been reading (and listening to) this week ending 18 January 2026 <a href="https://jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-been-reading-and-listening-to-this-week-ending-18-january-2026-a3d228ed216f" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-been-reading-and-listening-to-this-week-ending-18-january-2026-a3d228ed216f"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-bee</span><span class="invisible">n-reading-and-listening-to-this-week-ending-18-january-2026-a3d228ed216f</span></a> <a href="/tags/misinformation/" rel="tag">#Misinformation</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#SoftwareEngineering</a> <a href="/tags/economics/" rel="tag">#Economics</a> <a href="/tags/ai/" rel="tag">#AI</a> <a href="/tags/management/" rel="tag">#Management</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/oop/" rel="tag">#oop</a> <a href="/tags/programming/" rel="tag">#programming</a> <a href="/tags/gui/" rel="tag">#GUI</a> <a href="/tags/commonlisp/" rel="tag">#commonLisp</a> <a href="/tags/mcclim/" rel="tag">#McCLIM</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#softwareEngineering</a> <br>Article in which I show simple multiple inheritance and method qualifiers in ANSI common lisp&#x27;s common lisp object system, then show how the McCLIM implementation of the common lisp interface manager 2 specification turns the objects I was working with into rich general user interfaces with a minimal declarative effort presupposing that I was presenting lisp objects.</p><p>Rich interfaces pervade lisp&#x27;s history.<br><a href="https://screwlisp.small-web.org/clim/basic-principle/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="screwlisp.small-web.org/clim/basic-principle/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">screwlisp.small-web.org/clim/b</span><span class="invisible">asic-principle/</span></a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/lispygopherclimate/" rel="tag">#lispyGopherClimate</a> Sunday morning in Europe with <a href="/tags/lisp/" rel="tag">#lisp</a> # live <span class="h-card"><a href="https://climatejustice.social/@kentpitman" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>kentpitman</span></a></span> </p><p>Going over proto <a href="/tags/emacs/" rel="tag">#emacs</a>, <a href="/tags/cref/" rel="tag">#cref</a>, <a href="/tags/lispm/" rel="tag">#lispm</a> <a href="/tags/computerscience/" rel="tag">#computerScience</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#softwareEngineering</a> <a href="/tags/gui/" rel="tag">#GUI</a> history ! Ask questions in <a href="/tags/lisp/" rel="tag">#lisp</a> on <a href="/tags/irc/" rel="tag">#irc</a> now please !</p><p><a href="https://toobnix.org/w/gXLXQqxf5MYg1NDF2Ua6oA" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="toobnix.org/w/gXLXQqxf5MYg1NDF2Ua6oA"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">toobnix.org/w/gXLXQqxf5MYg1NDF</span><span class="invisible">2Ua6oA</span></a> 15 minutes to live.</p><p><a href="/tags/archive/" rel="tag">#Archive</a>: <a href="https://toobnix.org/w/jWdWsrBLCFkFQYrfzbzCR8" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="toobnix.org/w/jWdWsrBLCFkFQYrfzbzCR8"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">toobnix.org/w/jWdWsrBLCFkFQYrf</span><span class="invisible">zbzCR8</span></a></p>

<p>Programming properly should be regarded as an activity by which the programmers form or achieve a certain kind of insight, a theory, of the matters at hand. This suggestion is in contrast to what appears to be a more common notion, that programming should be regarded as a production of a program and certain other texts.<br></p>Peter Naur in Programming As Theory Building, 1985.<br><br>A computer program is not source code. It is the combination of source code, related documents, and the mental understanding developed by the people who work with the code and documents regularly. In other words a computer program is a relational structure that necessarily includes human beings.<br><br>The output of a generative AI model alone cannot be a computer program in this sense no matter how closely that output resembles the source code part of some future possible computer program. That the output could be developed into a computer program over time, given the appropriate resources to do so, does not make it equivalent to a computer program.<br><br><a href="/tags/ai/" rel="tag">#AI</a> <a href="/tags/genai/" rel="tag">#GenAI</a> <a href="/tags/generativeai/" rel="tag">#GenerativeAI</a> <a href="/tags/llm/" rel="tag">#LLM</a> <a href="/tags/copilot/" rel="tag">#Copilot</a> <a href="/tags/agenticcoding/" rel="tag">#AgenticCoding</a> <a href="/tags/dev/" rel="tag">#dev</a> <a href="/tags/tech/" rel="tag">#tech</a> <a href="/tags/softwaredevelopment/" rel="tag">#SoftwareDevelopment</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#SoftwareEngineering</a> <a href="/tags/programming/" rel="tag">#programming</a> <a href="/tags/coding/" rel="tag">#coding</a><br>

<p>8pm Tuesday Boston time<br><a href="/tags/lispygopherclimate/" rel="tag">#lispyGopherClimate</a> <a href="/tags/commonlisp/" rel="tag">#commonLisp</a> <a href="/tags/astrophysics/" rel="tag">#astrophysics</a> <a href="/tags/supercomputing/" rel="tag">#supercomputing</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#softwareEngineering</a> <a href="/tags/archive/" rel="tag">#archive</a> , <a href="https://communitymedia.video/w/9kysH4ZwVuP4J4erZozqFT" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="communitymedia.video/w/9kysH4ZwVuP4J4erZozqFT"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">communitymedia.video/w/9kysH4Z</span><span class="invisible">wVuP4J4erZozqFT</span></a> we will have (now done) a live interview with </p><p><a href="https://as.tufts.edu/physics/people/faculty/ken-olum" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="as.tufts.edu/physics/people/faculty/ken-olum"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">as.tufts.edu/physics/people/fa</span><span class="invisible">culty/ken-olum</span></a> </p><p>about the recent largest-ever cosmic string simulation also introducing their new spacetime-volume pseudo-parallel simulation technique, relating to gravitational backreaction.</p><p>People sometimes ask, &quot;who uses common lisp today&quot;.</p><p>Olum learned <a href="/tags/lisp/" rel="tag">#lisp</a> from John McCarthy.</p>

Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools<br><br><a href="https://larr.net/p/namings.html" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>larr.net/p/namings.html</a><br><br><a href="/tags/programming/" rel="tag">#Programming</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#SoftwareEngineering</a><br>

<p><a href="https://communitymedia.video/w/c2D8hXG2zixrjz6jyX96N9" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="communitymedia.video/w/c2D8hXG2zixrjz6jyX96N9"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">communitymedia.video/w/c2D8hXG</span><span class="invisible">2zixrjz6jyX96N9</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/python/" rel="tag">#python</a> <a href="/tags/commonlisp/" rel="tag">#commonLisp</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#softwareEngineering</a> <a href="/tags/programming/" rel="tag">#programming</a></p><p>Lisp industry adopted modern condition handling adapted to python introduced by <span class="h-card"><a href="https://climatejustice.social/@kentpitman" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>kentpitman</span></a></span> .</p><p>An incredibly important realisation of dynamic <a href="/tags/typetheory/" rel="tag">#typeTheory</a> with modern industry adoption. (Except conditions are more general than type checking and errors). See the peertube description for a longer spiel I will not reproduce here.</p><p>45 minute video, I snipped the after-discussion from the livestream.</p>

<p><a href="/tags/perl/" rel="tag">#Perl</a>: older than some <a href="/tags/programming/" rel="tag">#programming</a> careers, younger at heart than you think.</p><p>It’s evolved a lot since 1999 — modern features, cleaner syntax — yet it still runs code you wrote decades ago.</p><p>(And if you’re wondering: <a href="/tags/perl6/" rel="tag">#Perl6</a> was renamed Raku in 2019 — it’s a sister language, not a successor.)</p><p>Curious? Returning after a long break? <span class="h-card"><a href="https://toot.community/@shiar" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>shiar</span></a></span>’s cheat sheet is a perfect quick‑scan: <a href="https://sheet.shiar.nl/perl" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>sheet.shiar.nl/perl</a></p><p><a href="/tags/coding/" rel="tag">#coding</a> <a href="/tags/softwaredevelopment/" rel="tag">#SoftwareDevelopment</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#SoftwareEngineering</a> <a href="/tags/rakulang/" rel="tag">#RakuLang</a> <a href="/tags/perl5/" rel="tag">#Perl5</a></p>

<p>My personal experience as the sometime operator of a 1980s Xerox photocopier</p><p><a href="https://screwlisp.small-web.org/lispgames/wicked-problems/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="screwlisp.small-web.org/lispgames/wicked-problems/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">screwlisp.small-web.org/lispga</span><span class="invisible">mes/wicked-problems/</span></a></p><p>Notes about <a href="/tags/usability/" rel="tag">#usability</a> <a href="/tags/design/" rel="tag">#design</a> from Winograd and Adler&#x27;s Usability ( <a href="/tags/bookstodon/" rel="tag">#bookstodon</a> ) relevant to my <a href="/tags/nicclim/" rel="tag">#NicCLIM</a> <a href="/tags/commonlisp/" rel="tag">#commonLisp</a> <a href="/tags/gamedev/" rel="tag">#gamedev</a> .</p><p>Introduces design&#x27;s wicked problems and the implications for what design even is, conveyed by the book via a series of c. 80s case studies.</p><p><a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#softwareEngineering</a></p>

<p>What I’ve been reading this week ending 29 March 2026 <a href="https://jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-been-reading-this-week-ending-29-march-2026-b64266d11621" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-been-reading-this-week-ending-29-march-2026-b64266d11621"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-bee</span><span class="invisible">n-reading-this-week-ending-29-march-2026-b64266d11621</span></a> <a href="/tags/management/" rel="tag">#management</a> <a href="/tags/ai/" rel="tag">#ai</a> <a href="/tags/economics/" rel="tag">#economics</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#SoftwareEngineering</a></p>

<p>What I’ve been reading (watching, and listening to) this week ending 25 January 2026 <a href="https://jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-been-reading-watching-and-listening-to-this-week-ending-25-january-2026-9c368055fb96" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-been-reading-watching-and-listening-to-this-week-ending-25-january-2026-9c368055fb96"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-bee</span><span class="invisible">n-reading-watching-and-listening-to-this-week-ending-25-january-2026-9c368055fb96</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/lean/" rel="tag">#Lean</a> <a href="/tags/depression/" rel="tag">#Depression</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#SoftwareEngineering</a> <a href="/tags/politics/" rel="tag">#Politics</a> <a href="/tags/economics/" rel="tag">#Economics</a> <a href="/tags/ai/" rel="tag">#AI</a> <a href="/tags/science/" rel="tag">#Science</a> <a href="/tags/productmanagement/" rel="tag">#ProductManagement</a></p>

<p>What I’ve been reading (and watching) this week ending 15 February 2026 <a href="https://medium.com/@jchyip/what-ive-been-reading-and-watching-this-week-ending-15-february-2026-a677a7e43d8d" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="medium.com/@jchyip/what-ive-been-reading-and-watching-this-week-ending-15-february-2026-a677a7e43d8d"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">medium.com/@jchyip/what-ive-be</span><span class="invisible">en-reading-and-watching-this-week-ending-15-february-2026-a677a7e43d8d</span></a> <a href="/tags/lean/" rel="tag">#Lean</a> <a href="/tags/leadership/" rel="tag">#Leadership</a> <a href="/tags/politics/" rel="tag">#Politics</a> <a href="/tags/management/" rel="tag">#Management</a> <a href="/tags/ai/" rel="tag">#AI</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#SoftwareEngineering</a></p>

<p><a href="https://screwlisp.small-web.org/conditions/partial-gopher-client/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="screwlisp.small-web.org/conditions/partial-gopher-client/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">screwlisp.small-web.org/condit</span><span class="invisible">ions/partial-gopher-client/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/commonlisp/" rel="tag">#commonLisp</a> <a href="/tags/conditionhandling/" rel="tag">#conditionHandling</a> implemented as a <a href="/tags/gopher/" rel="tag">#gopher</a> protocol using <a href="/tags/emacs/" rel="tag">#emacs</a> <a href="/tags/slime/" rel="tag">#slime</a> as the client.</p><p>This is even better than it sounds.</p><p>The condition handling system (nonfatal generalization of exception handling using lisp&#x27;s local restarts/continuations) is unexplored and seen as opaque.</p><p>Using this tiny but esoteric example the available non-lexical computed restarts of an interactive condition are simply /browsable/.</p><p><a href="/tags/programming/" rel="tag">#programming</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#softwareEngineering</a></p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://climatejustice.social/@kentpitman" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>kentpitman</span></a></span></p>

<p><a href="/tags/itchio/" rel="tag">#itchio</a> <a href="/tags/programming/" rel="tag">#programming</a> style <a href="/tags/devlog/" rel="tag">#devlog</a> <a href="/tags/conditionhandling/" rel="tag">#conditionHandling</a> <a href="/tags/commonlisp/" rel="tag">#commonLisp</a> <a href="/tags/reliability/" rel="tag">#reliability</a> <a href="/tags/softwareengineering/" rel="tag">#softwareEngineering</a> </p><p><a href="https://lispy-gopher-show.itch.io/leonardo-calculus/devlog/1453593/a-little-ansi-common-lisp-condition-ls-example" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="lispy-gopher-show.itch.io/leonardo-calculus/devlog/1453593/a-little-ansi-common-lisp-condition-ls-example"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">lispy-gopher-show.itch.io/leon</span><span class="invisible">ardo-calculus/devlog/1453593/a-little-ansi-common-lisp-condition-ls-example</span></a></p><p>Finally pretty happy with my &quot;programming ls&quot; example. This is a good programming with conditions first blush, I think.</p><p>Programming with signals and restarts that a run-time handler-bind hooks into gives a program, such as my %%ls here, *forward compatibility* not just *backwards compatibility* - which I explore as a property of ansi common lisp itself.</p><p>Thoughts!</p>